Gillespie: Hate to break it to you, Team O, but the map has expanded

posted at 7:31 pm on November 4, 2012 by Erika Johnsen

Earlier this week, certain Team Obama members and loyalists insisted that Team Romney’s relatively late-in-the-game push into some new battlegrounds definitively means that Team R has at last figured out that they cannot win with the electoral map they originally planned, characterizing their movements as “desperate” and “flailing” to mark off some more territory. Obama campaign senior adviser David Plouffe echoed those sentiments on Sunday, contending that Team Obama is not at all in the defense-mode that might appear to the naked eye, but that they’re actually in offense-mode.

Citing the president’s slight leads in battleground states and the upper hand on early voting, Obama campaign senior adviser David Plouffe sounded confident about Obama’s chances for reelection.

“We’ve always known this was going to be a close race, but it is going to be decided in the battleground states, and we think in those states … we have an important lead,” Plouffe said on ABC’s This Week. “I’m confident two days from now the president will be reelected. We have the support to win this election.”

Plouffe concentrated on Obama’s ground game, especially in Pennsylvania, where the Romney campaign has focused attention in recent days. Plouffe called it a “desperate ploy at the end of a campaign,” and said Romney would have to win two-thirds of independent voters there to carry the state.

As much as Team Obama would no doubt like us to believe that Team Romney’s recent ventures into Pennsylvania are merely the deluded backfirings of a broken campaign machine, there was a pretty organic surge in Romney’s direction after that first game-changing presidential debate, and Team Romney is now just helping to fuel it along. Picking up on what’s already happening is not a “desperate” move, it’s a savvy one.

Romney also leads in a lot of polls of independents by healthy margins, and as for the early voting in battleground states, does that mean in states like, oh, say… Ohio, where the swing towards Republicans in early voting has knocked out Obama’s winning margin there from 2008, perhaps?

Team O is aggressively pushing this narrative that the Romney campaign has gone full-on madcap in their last-ditch push to ‘expand the map,’ but, news flash: The electoral map has expanded. The results of Obama’s big-government spend-happy policies, not to mention their waging a severely negative and small-potatoes campaign that hasn’t exactly hearkened back to the Hopenchange spirit of 2008, just means that not as many people are as pumped about voting for him this time around, plain and simple. The Obama campaign won’t admit it, of course, but as Romney campaign senior adviser Ed Gillespie summed up on ABC earlier, our incumbent president is in deep trouble.

You know, four years ago — it’s — it’s a remarkable juxtaposition here that Mitt Romney will be in the suburbs of Philadelphia today, and you know, four years ago, Barack Obama was in Indiana. When you look at where this map has gone, it reflects the — the change and the direction and the momentum toward Gov. Romney. And the fact is that a state like Pennsylvania being in play, a poll out today showing Michigan a dead heat, you know, this — the map has expanded. Wisconsin, Minnesota has expanded our way. We feel very confident in terms of where we are in the — in the target states. We’ve been able to expand into Pennsylvania while fully funding and staying current with everything we need to be doing in Florida and Virginia and Ohio and all of the other target states.

You must post video’s of people at your party doing the Humpbot Dance…

SWalker on November 4, 2012 at 8:56 PM

Yeah, they’re trying to get me to relax my strict “cell phone/ electronics ban” at the ranch so it can be posted, they’re so proud of it. Doubt I’ll do it, cause what happens at the ranch, stays at the ranch, if you know what I mean. But, if it’s as good as it sounds, I might not be able to deny them their requests, nor my friends here.

I used to not mind talking to a liberal for an exchange of ideas, but gumbyandpokey set a new low for them. No one stopped him. So, given gumby’s proclivity to gibber, I see all other liberals according to HIS standard.

If other liberals resent the stereotype gumby set, they need to get on HIS case for once. Gumby ruined it all for THEM, not for us.

Feel your pain here in CA. While I’m voting for Romney it doesn’t matter. The propositions are important though. One to put the stop to Moonbeam’s tax increase, the other to stop forcible union dues. Both have a good chance of passing.

Can’t figure out the INTRADE deal though. What’s up with that. Usually betters shouldn’t have any bias. Motive is just to win money. Have to admit, it’s giving me pause.
Hummer53 on November 4, 2012 at 7:47 PM

Wise man…..thinking outside the bubble. Looking at the sports odds is more interesting as the odds for individual state results are published. When all is said and done, review the results and compare to the wagering odds. Did they make sense? Next, review all of the information you consumed over the last few months and then re-evaluate who was feeding you the BS.

I love this Trollcott! God Bless whoever came up with it! My blood pressure is down to normal reading the comments again. We must stay positive and focused and not get sidetracked by people who thrive on chaos and destruction. I watched the next president on CSPAN today as he spoke in Pennsylvania. I am probably like a lot of Hot Air folks .
… I wasn’t a Romney supporter originally. But he won me over even during the heat of the primaries … and as I learned more about his character I came to admire him as much as I’ve admired any candidate. I believe truth will prevail. I think millions of people have seen who Romney really is and will make him our next president.

This poll is proof that CNN has definitively lost its collective mind!! How desperate they can get to put that cr*p out there!?? It beats me.

jimver on November 4, 2012 at 9:12 PM

Same thing market analysts do when the Dow goes up 10 points one day but drops 100 the next and they harp about the up day and how great everything’s going on Wall Street and conveniently ignore the losses…wishful thinking combined with an attempt to sway public opinion in the direction of their best interests/ideology.

i like the idea of trollcotting….however
when it laughed at the deaths of four brave americans
it exceeded the title of troll….
that right there, where i come from is the enemy…
and …should have got it broomed for life…at the least

Readjusting for an R+2.8 turnout (my current model adjustment until Rasmussen updates its party identification page) it becomes 55.5 to 42.6, Romney. I think that is too optimistic. I think this CNN poll is just plain garbage from top to bottom.

NotCoach on November 4, 2012 at 8:57 PM

Rasmussen also has the race tied. Pew research has Obama plus 3. Look back to 2008 at RCP. You’ll find that Rasmussen and Pew almost got the final results spot on. This race is very close.

Chip Cravaack is a good man. The commercials that are being played on TV up here in the NE part of the state against him are awful. Nolin’s ads are just stupid and full of lies, but the PAC ads are just outrageous.

I just don’t see how people vote with such spiteful, small people such as those in the DFL party in MN.

There is no saving the failed scam called hopenchange. They’ve tried everything and it continues to fade before their very eyes…must be SO disheartening and defeating for the sheeple that something seemingly once so exciting and promising turns into such a desperate, patently dishonest and ugly attempt to find relevance in a country that is a mere 48 hours from OVERWHEMINGLY rejecting every aspect of it. Tuesday will be the most humiliating defeat since 1984 for the marxist/crony capitalist con-men that hi-jacked the once respectable democrat party and I for one will enjoy watching EVERY second of it!

Buh-bye barky and biteme and all of your America-hating, race-baiting, class warfare lemmings, and may we NEVER see the likes of your kind in power in this great country again!
God Bless You President Romney and Vice President Ryan and may you bring respect, prosperity and honor back to the United States Of America!!!

In 2008 many of my friends voted for Obama on a guilt complex afraid of being called a racist. This no longer applies after almost four years of a Socialist reign. This will happen all over this great country.

I’m in California too and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for No on Prop 30 and Yes on Prop 32. One of my neighbors has a big sign for “No on 32”. I wanted to ask which union he is a member of, but thought better of it. Can’t put any political bumper stickers on the car if I don’t want it vandalized while in the parking lot at work. Hoping for the best come Tuesday.

Feel your pain here in CA. While I’m voting for Romney it doesn’t matter. The propositions are important though. One to put the stop to Moonbeam’s tax increase, the other to stop forcible union dues. Both have a good chance of passing.

arnold ziffel on November 4, 2012 at 9:05 PM

What good is it to vote for these props? Don’t they nearly always get reversed by activist judges?

E-R

p.s. I heard Mr. Douglas & Eb talking in the barn… they are “jonesing” for some bacon, so you’d better stay close to home with your dad Fred and mom Doris.

Obamas Stimulus Bills did not help black people or the poor. Much of the money went to his green energy buddies and their failed companies or to pay for unions retirement benefits, which is not the responsibility of the taxpayer. If Obama really wanted to help people he would have just given them the money for their own use which would have been spent to gin up the economy. Obama was running for a second term back then and threw poor Americans under the bus.

IMHO, It will HAVE to be a landslide victory for RR, otherwise I am afraid the dimwits will steal the election with voter fraud and “found” votes. (ie. Franken)

kcd on November 5, 2012 at 7:28 AM

Something to keep in mind when thinking about fraud….
OH had a D gov/sec of st in 08- now all R
PA had a D gov- now R
WI had D gov now R and SOS R
MI had D – now R gov
While there will always be fraud I feel much better knowing that these states have been working to shore this up. Plus, the ground game, poll watchers, legal teams on the ready are on it!!!

This poll is proof that CNN has definitively lost its collective mind!! How desperate they can get to put that cr*p out there!?? It beats me.

jimver on November 4, 2012 at 9:12 PM

Hate to disagree, but CNN, as well as any other communist led media outlet (portolet?) is more than deliberate, IMO. On the one hand they are trying to suppress anti Hussein voting by (hopefully) somehow convincing some out there that Romney doesn’t stand a chance. On the other hand, they may be getting ready for upcoming lawsuits tomorrow night and may use “the numbers” in media as their “arguments” in front of liberal judges that the election was “rigged” to elect Romney.

I just hope that margin of victory in OH, PA and FL is beyond any lawsuits they plan to file.

After all … they “say” they’re Conservatives right? And you have no problem owning them now …

Wonder if you’ll own their failures later?

HondaV65 on November 5, 2012 at 10:13 AM

I was not and still am not a fan of Romney, based on his prior record.

BUT…

I am more than willing to bet that we won’t see such life killing plots as Fast & Furious and Benghazi under Romney. I am also willing to bet you that we won’t see $100 BILLION squandered on anything “green”. Nor money wasted on GM, Chrysler, Wall Street, etc. Nor EPA abominations that kill jobs. Nor money and arms given to our sworn enemies in Egypt, Libya and Pakistan until they reform.